In a Q&A, Neelie Kroes, who fined MS for not complying with the EC's antitrust ruling, said: "I regret that the Commission has had to take such a step today, but given Microsoft's continued non-compliance to date, I have been left with no alternative. Today's decision reflects my determination to ensure that Microsoft complies with its obligations.Microsoft has claimed that its obligations in the decision are not clear, or that the obligations have changed. I cannot accept this characterisation - Microsoft's obligations are clearly outlined in the 2004 decision and have remained constant since then."

Internal interfaces change all the time. Which is providing public documentation for them is foolish. This is basic Computer Science, people. You guys claim to be "tech-savvy", yet can't understand why there's a difference between internal and public functions.

What do you mean by "change all the time"? Do they change when a new OS is released, or when they release updates? Besides that, statement that "interfaces change all the time" is completely wrong! If they did you would get a useless computer. IMPLEMENTATION of interfaces might change while the INTERFACES themselves are kept unchanged for as long as possible. And this, dear Molly is what is taught in computer science classes which you obviously skipped. But to get back to the topic, this fine is very well deserved. Bravo for the EU. This just goes on to show that there is something wrong with the US system of lobbying, and the influence of big companies on US legislation. MS has had more then ample time to comply with the ruling, thay chose not to. It is a decision. Good or bad, time will tell. Personaly I think it is a bad one.

Internal API's are usually internal because they're a part of the implementation . Hence, yes, internal API's change. So, if you don't want to support them, you don't document them!

Believe it or not but Microsoft has everything to gain from competitors building with its libraries and there's no reason for them to try abuse any extra abilities from internal API's to get an advantage. This is especially true in a market where they're the undisputed king of the hill, and for good merit, spreadsheets. They don't even need a speed advantage on Excel, they've got a "it works really well why switch" advantage .